Our friend Karen was awesome enough to take these photos you see before you at our recent baby shower, thanks Karen! A big thanks also goes out to Maya and Beth who organized the shindig for us. And of course, thanks to all our friends who showed up bearing gifts in preparation for Avin. Everyone’s support has given us the confidence we need during this crazy 9 months of anticipation. It’s all more than we could ask for. Enjoy the photos! For the complete set, check the gallery, or my flickr account and leave some comments!

Check out the entire gallery here!

Today the UPS guy graced us with his presence holding a package containing graphics we ordered from Blik! The graphics were exactly what we were was looking for and a more unique than going with the traditional framed wall decor, or cutesy wallpaper. Of course, cutesy wallpaper isn’t a bad thing, we were just looking for something a little different.  The cost for these graphics were around $60, and well worth the price. They covered a lot of wall space and gave the entire room a calm and moving feel of nature, and I’ve always loved the idea of bringing nature into your home. However, bringing in actual branches would be pretty complicated, so we did the next best thing, vinyl tree branches! Before I found out about Blik I had envisioned myself painting the branches on myself, and thankfully I didn’t have to spend any time painting on the walls with these. I did this alone so the whole ordeal took me a little more than an hour to finish, and the only hard part was keeping the bigger pieces from folding and sticking to each other when you are placing it on the wall. A second pair of hands would have made it easier to apply, but it still was still pretty easy without. I plan on getting some more graphics from Blik for my office, and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to spice up their wall with something unique.

Enjoy the pics, and check out the gallery for more!

Almost complete, is actually more like it. We still have a shelf to put on the wall, and a rocker chair which is coming from Adrienne’s mother. After those items are completed, then I believe the stage 1 (furtniture) of our nesting phase will be over. Phase 2 involves decorative aspects of the nursery, and phase 3 would be finalizing with smaller details, and making sure everything is 100% ready for a baby.

This nursery set comes from Ikea. We pretty much loved this set since the first time we saw it. We decided to finally go with it when we realized every other nursery set we liked was almost twice the price and half the pieces of the one we bought. The entire set cost us around $750, and only took us a few hours to put together and set up. We also had the help of Adrienne’s parents to help make the process go even quicker. They also helped us bring home the furniture since none of this stuff would have fit in either of our cars.

The entire set includes a crib, dresser/changing table combo, an armoire, and a storage shelf. Not a bad deal at all! The crib also converts into a toddler bed, and the changing table detaches from the top of the dresser which can be used as he gets older as well.

The crib bedding, believe it or not, came from Wal-mart! I had a certain feel for the nursery I wanted, which included a natural/modernish looking bedding, with light greens, browns, and natural looking colors. I had found exactly what I wanted, the problem was that the bedding I found would cost a stupid ridiculous amount of money, and definitely not worth it. I never found another set I liked and decided to leave the choice up to Adrienne. And she delivered! (suprisingly… just kidding!) At first I wasn’t to sure about the brighter constrast, but I think it works just fine, and there’s nothing wrong with a little color. Adrienne’s mother was also nice enough to get the bedding for us as a gift!  We love gifts!

Hayden seems to love the new nursery set as well. Our cats believe all this incredible stuff is all for them. Oh, they are in for a huge surprise!

 That’s all for stage 1 of the nesting phase. Stay tuned for phase 2 when we add some decorative aspects, and check the gallery for more pictures!

We had our 3rd ultrasound visit today, at 8AM to be exact, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t awake then, but still somehow managed to drive through the morning rush to make it on time. By the end of our appointment I was definitely awake, and moreso pretty content with what we heard!

Thankfully, the doctor from our last ultrasound wasn’t even there so we had a chance to sit down with our usual ultrasound doctor who had some very informative knowledge about our situation. I still regret not being able to see him on the last visit, but that’s all besides the point right now. I’ll go ahead and sum up the entire visit by telling you the greatest thing I’ve heard all week.

“You have nothing to worry about.”

The doctor explained to us that based on the information he gained from our previous visits, doing an amniocentisis isn’t at all necessary to our situation. Why didn’t we hear this the first time?! I keep telling myself it’s not important anymore…. Anyway, he explained that based on what he saw on the ultrasound screen,  the most likely scenario is that some fluid slowed down through the narrow parts of the intestines which caused the ultrasound machine to pick it up brighter than usual.

Adrienne and I both felt relief like never before. It’s one of those unexplainable moments where you just know that everything is going to be okay.  Adrienne does however have to take 3 more blood tests to rule out the possibility of an infection. I haven’t had a chance to do a some research about the tests yet, but once I do I’ll post an update on any information I find. 

Other than that, everything looks normal. His weight, size, development all looks fantastic! It was pretty awesome to see him on a 4D machine. Adrienne swears up and down that he looks exactly like me and looks nothing like her. I am win. Adrienne’s mom also came with us for some moral support, just in case we needed it, and thankfully we didn’t. But even so, it was nice to have one of Avin’s grandmothers present to see his ultrasound.

In conclusion, today was a great day.

OH HAI! 

Well, not really. We’re pretty young actually. But I wouldn’t hold that against us. It just means we’ll have more time to see Avin grow up and experience more before we end up kicking the bucket. But that’s all besides the point.

Adrienne and I were poking through some of our old baby photos we had earlier today and couldn’t help but wonder who Avin was going to end up looking like more. Which features is he going to take from who? Is he going to get my long eyelashes, or Adrienne’s bright eyes? Or is he going to have a perfect mix from the both us? I guess we’ll just have to stop being so impatient and wait and see.

Here are some pics of us from the days of old. Look at that shirt! I’d still rock that if I could. No comment on the blue shorts.

 I finally took some more pictures of Avin’s awesome duds, and i’d like to thank our family and friends who got him some of this awesome stuff.

A special thanks for Jeff and Kaylin, the cats love their new bed!

 Baby Mocs to match dad’s!

Hot Panda Collection 

Project Red from Gap, a gift from Aunt May and Uncle Dave!

 For the most part, the ultrasound went very well. We were able to take home a bunch of new pictures and spent a good amount of time watching our baby squirm around and cover his face with his hands. He must have been a little bashful today. His measurements were normal, his heart rate was perfect, and his weight was just fine. Around 12 ounces to be exact. We also found out that the length from his elbow to his shoulder was about an inch. After the nurse was done collecting data on the ultrasound, she went and fetched the doctor so he could do a double check and let us be on our way. The doctor came in a short time after, looked over some paperwork, and told us that Adrienne’s blood tests all looked fine, and there were no indicators for any problems. It felt great to hear that. “Everything seems fine”, I thought to myself. That feeling however, didn’t last very long, and the next words to come out of the doctor’s mouth made me feel the most horrible emotions I have ever felt:

“Everything seems okay, but there may be a problem.”

If you were in the room at the time, you would have probably been able to hear the sound of my heart falling into my stomach. For some reason my mind automatically replaces the words “may be” with “is”. So of course I’m thinking to myself, “Oh my God, I did something wrong.” I somehow muttered some sort of who, what, where, how question back to the doctor hoping that I may have been mistaken. He explained to us that the ultrasound showed his small intestines being bright. Which of course can mean a million and one different things. A couple of those things being down syndrome and cystic fibrosis. I usually take things with a grain of salt, and I never fully rely on assumptions unless it has a greater chance of it being true. But even so, I was terrified. All a parent ever wants is to have a healthy baby, and anything that takes that security away can be especially heart-wrenching. What makes it worse is that you have absolutely no control over it.

Although this is a concern, it’s not something to worry and stress over. Since there weren’t any other indicators for down syndrome or CF, it makes it a very low possibility. The doctor also said that it could be blood inside his intestines which he swallowed from inside the womb. If this is the case, then it should disappear by our next visit in 3 weeks. If the next ultrasound shows the same thing we saw today, then we may have to decide again whether to have an amniocentesis. But until then, I’m not going to worry. Or, I’ll try not to at least.

Update: I did some googling today based on the information that we received from the doctor and what I found is more reassurance on why we shouldn’t worry as much. Here is what I found:

I believe she is referring to ‘echogenicities’ in the fetal bowel which is considered to be one of the ultrasonic “soft signs” suggesting that the fetus may be suffering from chromosomal abnomalities the most common one of course is Down syndrome. The cause of the echogenicities is not clearly known but would appear to be due to calcified meconium or a maldevelopment of the gut of the fetus. The risk of Down syndrome in the presence of the findings of echogenic bowel is only 1.4% according to a study form the Benacerraf group in Boston. Other groups however had quoted a higher incidence. Counselling and genetic amniocentesis appear to be justified in the presence of such findings.

 There are several items that can be found during an ultrasound exam that some researchers have felt that may have a significant association with Down syndrome. These findings may be seen in normal fetuses, but some obstetricians believe that their presence increases the risk of the fetus having Down syndrome or other chromosomal abnormality. These “markers” include choroid plexus cyst, echogenic bowel, echogenic intracardiac focus, and dilitation of the kidneys (pyelctasis). However, these markers as a sign of Down syndrome are still controversial, and parents-to-be should keep in mind that each marker can also be found in a small percentage of normal fetuses. These ultrasound markers are best used in women over 35 or those who have a positive blood screening test, to either downgrade the risk (in cases where no such findings are seen in the ultrasound exam) or confirm that the pregnancy is high-risk for Down syndrome. In women under 35 years of age with normal maternal serum screen test results, the identification of one of these findings on the ultrasound is not significant enough to make a pregnancy high-risk for Down syndrome.

Avin had his first, well technically his first christmas, considering he got more presents than we did. Little guy gets to sit inside a liquid sack all day, take his mom’s food, and have presents waiting for him when he gets out. It’s perfect! With all the supportive family and friends we have, I think Avin will be well taken care of. Which is awesome. And I hope he never takes that for granted.

I haven’t completely photographed the entirety of Avin’s stuff, but here is a sneak peak at  how trendy our baby will end up.  And by trendy,  I mean just perfect. Here is the first batch of photos. More to come soon.

As soon as we found out we were having a baby, it was easy to realize a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment wasn’t going to cut it. So we moved! To a very nice 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhome in Lake Mary (north of Orlando). We aren’t completely finished decorating yet, but for the most part it’s done. I still need an office, it’s currently in a mess right now, so hopefully I can head over to Ikea soon and pick out some new stuff! And the nursery of course, is empty, but will be completed in due time.

Can you tell?